Bullet Hell: The Globalized Growth of danmaku games and the Digital Culture of High Scores and World Records

Mark Richard Johnson

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43817-7_2

Bullet Hell: The Globalized Growth of danmaku games and the Digital Culture of High Scores and World Records

Mark Richard Johnson

Department of Sociology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Johnson examines “bullet hell” or “danmaku” games, and unpicks their relationships to Eastern and Western gaming cultures, and competitive and non-competitive gamers. He first traces the genre’s history and its subsequent spread from Japan into the West, before focusing on the extraordinarily high levels of reflex and eyesight required to play them at the highest level. The chapter then examines several interrelated issues: the epistemological uncertainty surrounding the concept of world records in a community without any centralized database of information; the newly globalized culture of high scores; and why less-skilled players choose to play games with such an extreme reflex requirement. It concludes by summarizing the present state of the genre and the place of danmaku in the broader world of gaming.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Transnational Contexts of Development History, Sociality, and Society of Play
Subtitle of host publication	Video Games in East Asia
Publisher	Springer
Pages	17-42
ISBN (Print)	9783319438177
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43817-7_2
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 1 Mar 2016

Bibliographical note

Self-archiving of author accepted manuscript not supported by the publisher.

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-43817-7_2

Cite this

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